All India Muslim Majlis Mushawarat
writes to PM regarding Indian Waqf Service

Jan 28, 2012 (New Delhi):

Dr Manmohan Singh
Hob’ble Prime Minister of India
New Delhi

Mohtaram Janab Dr Manmohan Singh Sahab,Aadaab

You are aware that Waqf management in India has been mostly going by
default as recognized and documented by the then Prime Minister Mrs
Indira Gandhi through her letter of 1976 addressed to the chief
ministers (reproduced in Sachar Committee). The 28 Waqf Boards of
India suffer from a chronic maladministration because the CEOs are
usually low level, incompetent and untrained officers whom the rest of
the state bureaucracy does not consider as one of them – not even a poor
cousin. This is because Muslim officers (statutory requirement since
1954) of required seniority are very rare to find and spare. This has
been reported by both Sachar Committee in 2006 and the JPC of Waqf in
2008 after years of all-India touring, observation and consultation. The
facts have been re-affirmed through the information received by Zakat
Foundation of India (ZFI) under RTI Act for the decade 2001-2011.

Nonetheless, this one most useful Sachar recommendation (to create a
separate Waqf cadre) was thoughtlessly rejected by the Union Ministry of
Minority Affairs without any serious consideration thereof at any senior
level. This is evident from the ZFI’s inspection of the Ministry’s files
as ordered by the Central Information Commission.

Ever since 1863 (when Religious Endowments Act was issued), the Indian
religious establishments and endowments are managed by persons of the
relevant faith. Consequently, in several states, Hindu temples and
endowments are managed by very senior government officers of Hindu faith
specifically recruited year after year by the state government by virtue
of specific laws enacted for this purpose by state legislatures. Their
remunerations are paid by the state government. A separate service cadre
exists in Tamilnadu to manage Hindu temples affairs.

On the other hand, untrained low level persons like veterinary doctors,
retired teachers etc. manage the state waqf boards as CEOs. Rarely a
government officer is appointed. Even if this happens, the “Waqf CEO” is
such an officer’s additional charge. The reason: in the bureaucracy,
Muslims consist of 2.5% as against their national Census population of
13.4%.

Muslims of India are hurt at this discrimination meted out to them. The
All India Muslim Majlis-e-Mushawarat appeals to you to have a relook at
this vital issue of mass concern to the Muslims of India. A separate
Waqf cadre, suggested by Sachar Committee based on thorough reasoning -
Indian Waqf Service - must be created without any further loss of time.
Such arrangement is fully covered in the scheme of the Constitution.